5.  The applicant was born in 1972 and lives in Zhytomyr.
6.  The applicant was the director of B., a limited liability company. In 2007 and 2008 the company took out bank loans for the purpose of production activities. In April 2009 the company changed the composition of the shareholders and management. The changes were allegedly made on the basis of forged documents. Subsequently, the company failed to repay the loans. The company refused the banks’ requests to repay the debts. The applicant claimed that he was no longer working at the company.
7.  On 30 October 2009 the Prosecutor of Zhytomyr City instituted criminal proceedings in connection with the embezzlement of funds by the managers and owners of company B. and the forgery of documents.
8.  On 25 and 27 November 2009 the investigator of the Zhytomyr Prosecutor’s Office questioned the employees of the banks dealing with the loans to company B., the shareholders and the staff of company B. The witnesses gave details as to the role of the applicant in arranging the loan agreements and in the way the shareholders and management had been changed. One of the former shareholders claimed that his signature had been inserted on loan documents which he had not actually signed. He alleged that the applicant had then calmed him down by explaining that everything would be fine; his signature had been inserted without asking him as nobody had wished to bother him.
9.  On 27 November 2009 the applicant was also questioned. At 10.15 p.m. on 27 November 2009 the investigator of the Zhytomyr Prosecutor’s Office informed the applicant that he was being arrested and detained for seventy-two hours on suspicion of having committed a crime. The investigator drew up an arrest report specifying that the applicant was being arrested in accordance with Articles 106 and 115 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on the grounds that “eyewitnesses had directly identified him as a person who had committed a crime”.
10.  On 28 November 2009 the applicant challenged his arrest and detention before the Bohunskyy District Court of Zhytomyr (“the District Court”). He argued that his arrest and detention had been unlawful, noting that no eyewitness had identified him as a person who had committed any crime; furthermore, the alleged events had taken place a long time ago and there was no risk that he would abscond since he had previously voluntarily appeared before the investigator.
11.  On 30 November 2009 the investigator applied to the District Court with a request to place the applicant in pre-trial detention. On the same day the District Court, relying on Article 165-2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, found that in order to make a decision on the application of a preventive measure it required more information concerning the applicant’s personality, family status and lifestyle. The court therefore ordered that the investigator produce that information and extended the applicant’s preliminary detention to ten days.
12.  On 7 December 2009 the investigator released the applicant against a written undertaking not to abscond. The investigator noted that the applicant was disabled; he was the breadwinner for three minor children, one of whom was disabled; he had a permanent place of residence; and that there was no information that he would abscond or hinder the proceedings.
13.  On 29 January 2010 the District Court found that the applicant’s arrest had been unlawful because the prosecutor’s office had failed to provide evidence that any eyewitness had identified the applicant as a person who had committed a crime. The court further considered that the applicant’s arrest and his further detention had not been justified and necessary in the circumstances of the case. The prosecutor appealed against that decision.
14.  On 23 February 2010 the Zhytomyr Regional Court of Appeal quashed the decision as unfounded, noting that the District Court had not properly examined the witnesses’ statements available in the criminal case file. The case was remitted to the District Court for fresh consideration.
15.  On 15 March 2010 the District Court dismissed the applicant’s complaint, finding that the witness statements available in the file had identified the applicant as a person who had committed the alleged crimes. The applicant appealed against that decision.
16.  On 7 April 2010 the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of 15 March 2010, noting that the case file contained the statements of witnesses who had identified the applicant as a person who had committed the alleged crimes.
17.  On 11 May 2010, the Supreme Court rejected the applicant’s appeal on points of law as inadmissible, noting that the decisions of 15 March and 7 April 2010 were not amenable to review by the Supreme Court.